Local Dishes

1. le steak-frites

   Steak with French fries

   Usage

   The bistro and brasserie staple. You will always be asked how you want it: bleu (nearly raw), saignant (rare), à point (medium), bien cuit (well done). French "à point" is redder than what most countries call medium

   Grammar Note

   Masculine, hence "le". "Frites" is plural — a single "frite" is one chip

2. la blanquette de veau

   Veal stew in white sauce

   Usage

   A "white" stew — the meat is never browned. A nationwide home-cooking classic rather than a regional dish; usually served with rice

3. le bœuf bourguignon

   Beef stewed in red wine

   Usage

   A Burgundy stew: beef simmered for hours with red wine, onions, mushrooms and lardons. Found on bistro menus far beyond the region

   Grammar Note

   "Bourguignon" is the adjective "from Burgundy", masculine here to agree with "bœuf"; the feminine form is "bourguignonne"

4. le coq au vin

   Chicken braised in wine

   Usage

   A stew associated with Burgundy. The wine changes by region: Alsace makes "coq au riesling", the Jura makes "coq au vin jaune"

5. les escargots de Bourgogne

   Burgundy snails in garlic butter

   Usage

   A starter. Stuffed with garlic-parsley butter ("beurre d'escargot") and baked; you get tongs and a two-pronged fork. Ordered by the half dozen or dozen

   Grammar Note

   Plural, so the article is "les"; the singular is "l'escargot"

6. le confit de canard

   Duck confit

   Usage

   A South-West (Gascony, Périgord) speciality: duck leg slow-cooked and preserved in its own fat, then crisped up to serve. Usually with "pommes de terre sarladaises"

7. le cassoulet

   White bean and meat casserole

   Usage

   A Languedoc dish. Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Toulouse each claim it; the Toulouse version uses duck confit and Toulouse sausage. Very heavy — best eaten at lunch

   Grammar Note

   The name comes from the "cassole", the earthenware dish it is cooked in

8. la bouillabaisse

   Marseille fish stew

   Usage

   From Marseille and the Provençal coast, made with rockfish and traditionally served in two stages — broth first, then the fish — with bread and the garlic-saffron "rouille". A 1980 charter was drawn up because tourists were being served ordinary fish soup under the name

9. la ratatouille

   Provençal stewed vegetables

   Usage

   A Provençal dish from around Nice: aubergine, courgette, pepper, tomato and onion stewed in olive oil. Served as a side or on its own — a useful option for vegetarian travellers

10. la salade niçoise

    Salade niçoise

    Usage

    From Nice. Purists insist everything except the hard-boiled egg (and possibly the tuna) is raw — no potatoes, no green beans. Tomato, anchovy or tuna, Niçois black olives and olive oil. Outside Nice, cooked vegetables are the norm

11. la choucroute garnie

    Sauerkraut with cured meats

    Usage

    The Alsace speciality: fermented cabbage braised in white wine and piled with sausages, salt pork and bacon. Portions are huge — one plate can feed two. Drunk with Alsatian Riesling

    Grammar Note

    "Garnie" means "garnished (with meat)", feminine to agree with "choucroute"; the cabbage alone is just "la choucroute"

12. la tarte flambée / la flammekueche

    Alsatian thin-crust tart

    Usage

    From Alsace (the Kochersberg). Thin bread dough with thick cream or fromage blanc, onions and lardons, blasted in a wood oven. It is not a pizza; tables usually share several in a row

    Grammar Note

    "Flammekueche" is the Alsatian name (also spelled Flammeküeche / Flammeküche); menus commonly print both

13. la galette complète

    Buckwheat galette with ham, egg and cheese

    Usage

    From Brittany. A savoury buckwheat ("sarrasin" / "blé noir") galette; "complète" is the standard ham-egg-cheese version. Distinct from the sweet wheat-flour "crêpe". In a crêperie it is drunk with dry cider from a "bolée"

14. la crêpe

    Crêpe

    Usage

    Breton in origin. In a crêperie "crêpe" means the sweet wheat-flour kind; the savoury buckwheat one is a "galette". Street stalls sell "crêpe au sucre" and "crêpe au Nutella"

    Grammar Note

    Feminine. The circumflex in "crêpe" marks a lost historical "s", not vowel length

15. la tartiflette

    Potato and Reblochon gratin

    Usage

    From Haute-Savoie in the Alps: potatoes, onions and lardons under a whole Reblochon. A ski-resort staple, but a recent invention — it appeared in the 1980s, reportedly as a rebranding of the local "péla"

    Grammar Note

    The name comes from "tartifla", the Savoyard dialect word for potato

16. la fondue savoyarde

    Savoyard cheese fondue

    Usage

    From Savoie in the Alps: bread dipped in melted cheese. Almost always a minimum order for two ("à partir de 2 personnes") — solo diners are often turned down

    Grammar Note

    "Savoyarde" is the feminine of "savoyard" (from Savoie), agreeing with "fondue"

17. la raclette

    Raclette

    Usage

    A winter dish shared between Savoie and the Swiss Valais: melted cheese scraped over potatoes and charcuterie. Often winter-only, and like fondue usually a minimum of two

    Grammar Note

    From the verb "racler" (to scrape) — the melted face of the cheese is scraped off

18. le gratin dauphinois

    Dauphinois potato gratin

    Usage

    From the Dauphiné around Grenoble: thinly sliced potatoes baked in milk and cream. The traditional version has no cheese on top. Usually served as a side with meat

19. la quiche lorraine

    Quiche lorraine

    Usage

    From Lorraine. Made with lardons and the egg-and-cream "migaine" only — the traditional recipe contains no cheese; cheese versions spread in the later 20th century. A slice from a bakery makes a cheap lunch

20. l'aligot

    Aligot — stretchy cheese mash

    Usage

    From the Aubrac plateau (Aveyron, Cantal, Lozère): potato purée worked with fresh Aubrac tome, cream, butter and garlic until it stretches like dough. Served with country sausage

    Grammar Note

    Masculine, but the article elides to "l'" before the vowel

21. la quenelle de brochet

    Pike quenelle

    Usage

    A Lyon speciality: pike forcemeat shaped into a spindle and baked, classically with crayfish "sauce Nantua". Found in Lyon's traditional "bouchon" restaurants

22. l'andouillette

    Andouillette — chitterling sausage

    Usage

    ⚠ A sausage made from pork digestive tract ("chaudins") with a famously powerful smell and taste — do not order it blind. Troyes, Lyon and Cambrai are the known versions; the AAAAA award is the quality marker

23. la soupe à l'oignon gratinée

    Gratinated onion soup

    Usage

    A Paris bistro and brasserie starter: caramelised onion soup topped with bread and cheese and browned in the oven. The bowl comes out extremely hot

24. le croque-monsieur

    Croque-monsieur

    Usage

    A café snack: toasted ham and cheese finished with béchamel and cheese. Add a fried egg on top and it becomes a "croque-madame". Usually served with a side salad as a light lunch

25. les moules-frites

    Mussels with fries

    Usage

    A speciality of northern France (Nord-Pas-de-Calais) and Belgium. The base version is "moules marinière", steamed with white wine and shallots. Eaten in vast quantities at Lille's autumn Braderie

    Grammar Note

    Both "moules" and "frites" are feminine plurals, hence "les"

26. le steak tartare

    Steak tartare (raw beef)

    Usage

    ⚠ Raw minced beef, mixed with capers, shallots, egg yolk and seasonings, served with fries. Ask for it "aller-retour" to have the outside seared. Check before ordering if you avoid raw meat

27. la tarte Tatin

    Tarte Tatin

    Usage

    A dessert: apples caramelised, the pastry laid on top, then turned out upside down. Named after the Tatin sisters of Lamotte-Beuvron in the Sologne. Served warm with crème fraîche

28. la crème brûlée

    Crème brûlée

    Usage

    A dessert: vanilla custard with a sugar crust burnt on top and cracked with a spoon. A fixture of bistro dessert menus

    Grammar Note

    "Brûlée" is the feminine past participle of "brûler" (to burn), agreeing with the feminine "crème"

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